Content ratings are often provided for artistic works of authorship, like movies, songs, books, etc. to inform consumers of the nature and/or appropriateness of the content for certain audiences. As one example, a motion picture rating system is designated to classify films with regard to suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence or other types of mature content that may be contained within a given motion picture (or “movie”). The rating system is designed to help consumers make more educated decisions about whether a given movie is suitable for a particular audience, such as themselves, their children, etc. A lower (or “less restrictive”) rating may be afforded to a work that is deemed suitable for viewing by broader audiences, including young children, etc., whereas a higher (or “more restrictive”) rating may be afforded to a work that is deemed to have a more restrictive audience for which it is suitable (such as only suitable for children above a certain age, etc.).
In some countries, such as Australia, an official government body decides on ratings; while in other countries, such as the United States, it is generally done by industry committees with little, if any, official government involvement. The influence of specific factors in deciding a rating varies from country to country. For example, in certain countries, like the U.S., movies with strong sexual content are often restricted to adult viewers, whereas in other countries, like France and Germany, sexual content is viewed much more leniently. On the other hand, movies with violent content are often subject in some countries, like Germany and Finland, to high/restrictive ratings, whereas other countries may offer more lenient ratings to violent movies. Other factors may or may not influence the classification process, such as whether the movie is set within a non-fictional historical context, whether the movie glorifies violence or drug use, whether violence or drug use is carried out by the protagonist with whom the viewer should empathize or by the antagonist, etc.
A movie may be produced with a particular rating in mind, and it may be re-edited in some instances if the desired rating is not obtained, especially to avoid a higher rating than intended. A movie may also be re-edited to produce an alternate version, such as for distribution in other countries, broadcast on television networks, etc.
The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA's) film-rating system is often used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. In the U.S., the MPAA's rating systems are generally the most-recognized guide for parents regarding the content of movies. Since 1990, MPAA movie ratings are: G—General Audiences (all ages admitted), PG—Parental Guidance Suggested (some material may not be suitable for children), PG-13—Parents Strongly Cautioned (some material may not be appropriate for children under 13), R—Restricted (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian), and NC-17 (no one 17 and under admitted).
Similarly, content ratings are often provided for works other than movies. For instance, song recordings are often designated as “explicit” if they contain explicit lyrics. Content ratings are also provided for books in some cases. For instance, the Marvel Rating System is a system for rating the content of comic books, with regard to appropriateness for different age groups. The Marvel Rating System assigns each comic book one of the following ratings: ALL AGES—appropriate for all ages; A—appropriate for age 9 and up; T+ TEENS AND UP—appropriate for most readers 13 and up, parents are advised that they might want to read before or with younger children; PARENTAL ADVISORY—15 years and older—similar to T+ but featuring more mature themes and/or more graphic imagery; and MAX: EXPLICIT CONTENT—appropriate for persons 18 years or older.
Traditionally, a rating is assigned for an individual work, such as for a given movie, song, book, etc. Individual works may be arranged into a compilation, such as an album containing a plurality of individual song recordings thereon. Each individual work within such a compilation traditionally has a respective rating (e.g., certain songs on an album may be rated “explicit” while others are rated “clean”), and in some instances the overall compilation (e.g., album) may have a rating.
In many cases, a high/restrictive (e.g., explicit) rating is assigned to an individual work because of a relatively small portion of the content contained therein (e.g., a few scenes of a movie or a few lyrics in a song). So, essentially the rating assigned to the individual work is for the worst-case scenario (i.e., the worst portion of the content contained within the individual work), although such portion on which the rating is based may be a relatively small part of the total content of the individual work. Because a work having a restrictive rating may contain a relatively small portion of offensive content that lead to the restrictive rating, consumers often choose to nevertheless play a work that is rated more restrictive than the consumer may desire to play, and in some instances the consumer chooses to endure/overlook the small portion of offensive content or attempts to take manual action to avoid presentation of the offensive content (e.g., by fast forwarding through the offensive content).
Traditionally, responsibility falls on such a consumer of an individual work having a high/restrictive rating (e.g., a moving having a rating of at least “PG,” “PG-13,” or “R”) to try to watch and/or listen for the offensive content and take manual action to fast-forward through such content if he/she does not want to have that content played for the audience (e.g., the consumer himself/herself, their children, etc.). Often, such monitoring by the consumer is difficult or impossible, as the offensive content may not be identified by the consumer until it is presented. Even when the consumer is familiar with the individual work and has knowledge about where the offending content resides therein, monitoring the individual work and taking manual action to avoid presentation of such content (e.g., through fast-forwarding through the offensive content) is an undesirable responsibility to place on the consumer, which may detract from the consumer's enjoyment of the individual work and/or media experience, in addition to being prone to human error (e.g., in the event the consumer is distracted or otherwise fails to properly take action to avoid presentation of offensive content).
In some instances, technological approaches have been employed to aid in preventing individual works having a certain rating from being presented to inappropriate audiences. For example, the V-chip technology is commonly implemented in television receivers in the U.S. and Canada, which allows the blocking of programs based on their ratings. In this way, an individual work (e.g., television program) having a rating that exceeds a certain level may be entirely blocked by the V-chip. This allows parents to effectively block programs having a high/restrictive rating from being viewed on their television by their children, for example.
Additionally, in some instances, an individual work may have two separate versions of it created, such as one “clean” version and one “explicit” version. As an example, many songs that contain explicit lyrics have an alternative “clean” version that may be selected/purchased by a consumer. For instance, the original song may be modified to create a “clean” version to make the explicit lyrics contained in the original song unintelligible or to replace the explicit lyrics with different “clean” lyrics. In this scenario, each version of the song is a stand-alone recording, which is either rated as “clean” or as “explicit.” Again, each song recording is assigned a single rating for the overall content of the song, and consumers must select which song version they desire. Similarly, movies may have different versions created, such as a version that is suitable for TV broadcast, where the “cleaner” version (e.g., the TV version) may have certain scenes removed or replaced with other “cleaner” scenes and/or the audio may be modified (e.g., to dub over the original soundtrack to replace certain offensive words with “cleaner” words, etc.).
Thus, a consumer desiring to play a certain individual work (rather than having the work blocked or otherwise avoiding the work altogether) but who is conscience or desirous of avoiding certain offensive or explicit content of the work is left to either select a “clean” version of such work (if one is available) and/or to self-monitor the playback of the work and take manual effort to avoid the offensive or explicit portions of the work's content.